Motor Family - In Motown

The last Blog description is dated - so here's a better one. This is a record of some of what goes through my mind and some of what does through my camera lens. Most pics should be from Michigan, some elsewhere in the US and some from Europe. All opinions are mine and are subject to change without noticing.
I guess its a kinda photo - travel - ranty - sports blog.
Enjoy!

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

This means having a large metal dish of water on a table in which you cook your food prior to eating it.

Such a place is Hong Chang Xing. Now, before we got into the food - another post - the menu provided us Westerners much entertainment. The translations were a wee bit off. In fairness, if I were to translate from English to Chinese - I would be clueless. In any event....

Sea Hibernation of Insects Head

Smoking Ducks Tongue (had this - interesting!)

The Hand Grasps the Mutton (??)

OK, some places in the states talk about "MSG Free". Not in this place. Quite proud of its: Wind Monosodium Glutamate Duck

Monday, July 06, 2009

We were done with wandering around Saugatuck - and things were shutting up there. Seems most places are done by 6pm. The restaurants (apart from The Butler, where we had lunch) all seemed to not fit our needs - either too nice or too hot-dog. And we didn't want pizza.

A last ditch blackberry search pointed us to The Saugatuck Brewing Company (actually on Blue Star Highway in Douglas) - it had a couple of good reviews, so we thought we'd have a look. And it was in Douglas, near where we were staying.

I stopped in and found it served food, brewed its own beer, and was family friendly.

So we gave it a go!

There was also 2 relatively unique (and welcoming) traits here - smoke free, and TV free (as far as I could see).

It seems there is an Irish theme going on - the pub (or part of the pub) within was called The Lucky Stone, and there was what appeared to be real old (pre EU) road signs from Ireland.

I talked to our server, Katie (who was great!), about why the Irishness - the owner has spent some time in Ireland and wanted to somewhat mould the poub around it.

By the look of the beer list (not all of which were on sale yet - the place seems to be on its way up still), they also knew a bit about other countries, or at least the beer coming out of them - there was mentins of Alts, Kolshchs, Impertial Stouts, Porters to name a few.

I had a Weiss bier to start with. It was good - not too heavy, not too bitter and not at all watery. Good! Next I moved to the Alt. Also good, but just a touch too heavy for me after a day walking around stores. The food was normal burgers, sandwiches, pretzels with mustard, pub dinners, and that kind of thing. Nothing wildly extravagant, but thats just fine when what's offered comes out as good as you would wish for. And it did. No complaints from our table at all. Prices - reasonable!

There was also a games area - no, not space invaders, but darts and board games. Nice touch.

Why is it the Saugatuck Brewing Company if it is in Douglas? Well, it used to be in Saugatuck but needed a bigger premises, so the spot in Douglas fitted.

All in all, should we be in the area again, we will be back the Saugatuck Brewing Company to both eat and drink!